James Wills
Rev. James Wills (1 January 1790 - November 1868) was an Irish poet and cleric. Life Overview Wills, the younger son of a Roscommon squire, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and studied law in the Middle Temple. Deprived, however, of the fortune destined for him and the means of pursuing a legal career by the extravagance of his elder brother, he entered the Church, and also wrote largely in Blackwood's Magazine and other periodicals. In 1831 he published The Disembodied, and other poems. The Philosophy of Unbelief (1835) attracted much attention. His largest work was Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen, and his last publication The Idolatress (1868). In all his writings Wills gave evidence of a powerful personality. His poems are spirited, and in some cases show considerable dramatic qualities.John William Cousin, "Wills, James," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 409. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 19, 2018. Youth and education Wills was the younger son of Thomas Wills of Willsgrove, co. Roscommon, a country gentleman belonging to a family of Cornish extraction long settled in Ireland, who had married as his 2nd wife a daughter of Captain James Browne of Moyne, co. Roscommon.Falkiner, 44. He received his education at Dr. Miller's school at Blackrock, co. Dublin, and from private tutors. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, on 1 Nov. 1809, taking a high place at entrance. During his university career he belonged to a brilliant circle of undergraduates, which included Charles Wolfe, John Sydney Taylor, John Anster, and Samuel O'Sullivan.Falkiner, 45. Career Wills inherited, as joint heir with his brother, a very considerable estate, which came into his family through his mother; and in early manhood was in very easy circumstances. But shortly after he had left the university the improvidence of his elder brother, who managed to squander the property of both, left the younger with very slender resources, and Wills was obliged to abandon the notion he had formed of embracing the profession of the bar, though he had taken the initial steps towards getting called, and had entered at the Middle Temple in 1821. Returning to Ireland, Wills spent several years at Bray, in the neighborhood of Dublin, engaged in desultory literary pursuits, and wrote many of his subsequently published poems at this period. Here also he met Charles Robert Maturin, and wrote his well-known poem, The Universe, which was published by, and long attributed to, Maturin, and the authorship of which was long a subject of literary controversy (cf. Notes and Queries, 5th ser. iii. 20, 172, 240, 280, 340; Dublin University Magazine, October 1875; Irish Quarterly Review, March 1852). For this poem, which is now proved to have been entirely the composition of Wills, Maturin received £500 from Henry Colburn. In 1822 Wills married Katherine, daughter of Rev. W. Gorman, niece of Chief-justice Charles Kendal Bushe, and grandniece of Sir John Doyle. Dramatist William Gorman Wills was their son. James Wills took orders on his marriage in the expectation of receiving a presentation to a crown living through the chief justice, a hope which was defeated through a change of government. From the date of his marriage until 1838 he resided in Dublin. In 1831 he published The Disembodied, and other poems, in Dublin, and became a constant contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, the Dublin University Magazine, the Dublin Penny Journal, and other periodicals. To the Dublin University Magazine, his connection with which originated in a review of George O'Brien's criticism of Petrie's Round Towers, he was one of the earliest contributors; and later in his career he was associated with Cæsar Otway in founding the Irish Quarterly Review. In 1835 he published the Philosophy of Unbelief, a work which was afterwards republished, and which acquired considerable popularity in America. Wills combined with a strong literary instinct a remarkable aptitude for metaphysical analysis. Of several essays read by him before the Royal Irish Academy, one on the "Spontaneous Association of Ideas" was said by Archbishop Richard Whately to overturn Dugald Stewart's theory on the same subject. In 1835 Wills was nominated to the sinecure curacy of Suirville, co. Kilkenny, of which parish he was appointed vicar in 1846. In 1849 he was further advanced to the living of Kilmacow in the same county, and ultimately, in 1860, to that of Attanagh in co. Kilkenny. His most important literary venture was the valuable biographical work known as Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen, of which the first volumes were published in 1839 and 1840. This work, which was completed in 1847 and for which its author received £1,000, aims at giving a history of Ireland in a series of biographies ranging from the earliest to the most modern times, and is divided into 6 periods, to each of which Wills prefixed a valuable historical introduction. It was reissued subsequently under the title of The Irish Nation, the concluding volumes of the revised edition appearing after the author's death, under the editorship of his son, Mr. Freeman Wills. The work has been accorded by a very competent authority, John Thomas (afterwards Lord-chancellor) Ball, in the Dublin University Magazine, the praise of "great research, patient investigation, and sound judgment, free alike from sectarian and political prejudices," and as "the most elaborate and the most complete record of the history and biography of Ireland as yet (1847) given to the Irish public." The book is, however, very deficient in point of style and arrangement, and, like all works of reference on so large a scale by a single hand, is in parts perfunctory. In 1845 Wills published Dramatic Sketches, and other poems, which were followed in 1848 by Moral and Religious Epistles. Wills was appointed Donellan lecturer in the University of Dublin for 1855-1856, and delivered a course of sermons, published in 1860 under the title of Lectures on the Antecedent Probability of the Christian Religion. He also edited Chief-justice Bushe's posthumously published Summary View of the Evidences of Christianity. In 1868, shortly before his death, he published The Idolatress, and other poems, which, like the Dramatic Sketches, was a collection of scattered contributions to various periodicals. He died at Attanagh in November 1868.Falkiner, 46. Writing His verse is not without merit; the shorter pieces breathe a strong spirit of Irish patriotism of the best kind; and a famous Irish nationalist is said to have embraced the old clergyman on learning that he was the author of "The Minstrel's Walk." Wills was an unusually brilliant conversationalist, and some of his more ambitious poems show much of the dramatic power which descended to his son, William Gorman Wills. Publications Poetry *''The Universe: A poem'' (published as by "C.R. Maturin"). London: Henry Colburn, 1821. *''The Disembodied; with other poems''. London: Longman, Rees / Dublin: Hodges & Smith, 1831. *''Dramatic Sketches, and other poems''. Dublin: W. Curry, Jun., 1845. *''Moral and Religious Epistles''. Dublin: W. Curry, Jun., 1846. *''The Idolatress, and other poems. London: privately published, printed by J.C. Hotten. Non-fiction *Letters on the Philosophy of Unbelief. London: B. Fellowes, 1835. *''Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen. Dublin: A. Fullarton, 1840, 1847 Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV,Volume V, Volume VI **revised as The Irish Nation: Its history and biography (completed by Freeman Mills). London, Edinburgh, & Dublin: 1875. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, Volume V, Volume VI, Volume VII, Volume VIII *''An Estimate of the Antecedent Probability of the Christian Religion; and of its main doctrines: In six sermons. Dublin: Hodges, Smith, 1860. Edited *Charles Kendal Bushe, ''Summary View of the Evidences of Christianity. Dublin: W. Curry, Jun., 1845. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:James Wills, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 9, 2017. See also *List of Irish poets References * . Wikisource, Mar. 9, 2017. Notess External links ;About *James Wills in A Compendium of Irish Biography *James Wills at Library Ireland *Rev. James Wills (1790-1868) at Ricorso * Wills, James Category:1790 births Category:1868 deaths Category:Irish poets Category:19th-century Irish people Category:People from County Roscommon Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets